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Presented   byVAj<SS-V(S>rV^  c)Vn(£.o\  .  <S<3YY-i''u\ 

BV  4258  .A5  1911  c.l 
Alexander,  Charles  Beatty, 

1849-1927. 
Western  Theological  Seminar 

^  ri  r\  y  a  a  a      rial   i  T7CiT-£i/-l 


WESTERN  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 


WESTERN  THEOLOGICAL 


SEMINARY  '^^   - 

I* 

ADDRESS   DELIVERED,   BY   INVITATION  OF     ^-  -*'^^  ^^^ 
THE    DIRECTORS,   ON   THE    OCCASION    OF 
THE  LAYING  OF  THE   CORNER-STONE   OF 
MEMORIAL  HALL,  A  NEW  DORMITORY, 
NORTH  SIDE,  PITTSBURGH,  PENNSYLVANIA 


BY     . 
CHARLES   BEATTY   ALEXANDER,   LL.D. 

PRINCETON  UNIVERSITY  AND  WASHINGTON  AND  JEFFERSON  COLLEGE 


MAY  THE   FOURTH,  MCMXI 


PRINTED    FOR  THE   SEMINARY 
1911 


THE    TROW    PRESS,    NEW    YORK 


Mr.  President,  Fathers  and  Brethren  : 

We  are  laying  the  foundations  of  a  building, 
the  future  value  of  which  it  is  hard  to  esti- 
mate. The  time  is  past  when  institutions  of 
learning  were  criticized  because  they  spent 
a  great  deal  of  money  on  their  material  sur- 
roundings. While  intellectual  and  moral 
interests  should  be  supreme,  it  cannot  be 
denied  that  the  usefulness  of  a  university,  or 
seminary,  or  college,  is  very  largely  depend- 
ent on  the  way  in  which  the  members  are 
housed.  Our  Protestant,  and  especially  our 
Presbyterian,  ancestors  did  not  always  realize 
this.  They  had  simple  ideas.  They  thought 
more  of  the  inward  and  spiritual  grace,  than 
they  did  of  the  outward  and  sensible  sign. 

But  of  late  years  the  advantages  of  stately 
architecture  have  been  more  and  more  under- 
stood. Good  buildings  not  only  satisfy  the 
aesthetic  sense,  but  have  a  moral  value. 
Much  might  have  been  lost  from  the  in- 
fluence of  Oxford  and  Cambridge,  if  those 
universities  had  had  their  homes  in  the  un- 
couth houses  of  the  German  schools. 


There  is  a  practical  side  to  this  subject. 
When  a  number  of  young  men,  preparing  for 
one  of  the  learned  professions,  have  to  live 
with  unattractive  surroundings,  they  must  be 
demoralized.  To  live  in  rooms  that  are  clean 
and  hygienic  and  comfortable  must  surely 
make  for  a  good  and  wholesome  life. 

Let  me  say  also,  that  we  owe  something  to 
men  who  are  going  out  to  sacrifice  themselves 
for  the  Church.  No  doubt  there  are  some 
who  will  live  very  well  in  the  great  city  par- 
ishes, and  in  prosperous  towns.  But  there 
are  many  who  will  have  to  endure  hardness 
as  good  soldiers  of  the  Cross.  It  is  a 
great  thing  for  these  to  have  a  comfortable 
home,  at  least  while  they  are  preparing  for 
their  great  conflict  with  the  world.  They 
can  afterwards  look  back  and  say  that  the 
Church  helped  them  to  begin  their  career 
in  comfort. 

From  a  layman's  point  of  view  the  exis- 
tence of  a  Theological  School  of  the  right 
kind  in  a  great  center  of  industry  like  this,  is 
of  incalculable  value  to  the  City  itself.  It 
gives  tone  to  all  its  surroundings.  It  brings 
in  residence  learned  and  able  men.  It  gathers 
in  the  City  advanced  students,  and  it  has  a  con- 
stant influence  on  the  preachers  of  the  Word, 

4 


There  have  been  cases  where  the  influence 
of  a  Seminary,  of  a  so-called  ultra  liberal 
type,  has  not  been  for  the  good  of  the  sur- 
rounding  Churches.  But  this  is  not  that 
kind  of  an  institution. 

In  seeing  the  corner-stone  laid  of  this  im- 
portant building,  one  cannot  help  thinking  of 
another  less  material  foundation  upon  which 
this  Seminary  is  built.  It  is  built  upon  the 
foundation  of  the  Prophets  and  Apostles. 
Surely  I  do  not  have  to  tell  you  what  it  has 
done  for  the  Church.  It  has  occupied  one 
of  the  strategic  points,  with  Princeton  on  the 
east.  Auburn  on  the  north,  and  McCormick 
on  the  west. 

It  has  in  the  years  since  its  foundation  in 
1825  carried  on  a  great  work.  Its  advance 
under  its  present  able  President,  Dr.  James 
A.  Kelso,  of  which  this  building  will  be  an 
outward  and  visible  sign,  is  known  in  all  the 
Churches.  It  cannot  be  hid.  We  con- 
gratulate him  on  this  auspicious  occasion. 

May  we  not  without  straining  our  imagina- 
tions indulge  the  hope  that  this  great  edifice, 
which  we  are  beginning,  may  be  one  of  a 
group  of  buildings,  under  the  same  able  con- 
trol, testifying  to  the  willingness  of  Penn- 
sylvania   Christians    to     express,    by    their 

5 


gifts,    their    approval    of    great    educational 
success. 

Bishop  Berkeley  thought  that  the  course  of 
empire  was  toward  the  west.  It  seems  to  me 
that  the  course  of  theological  empire  is  to- 
ward the  east.  As  a  Princeton  and  eastern 
man,  I  know  what  a  refreshing  source  of  in- 
spiration this  school  of  theology  and  this 
part  of  the  country  have  been  for  different 
centers  of  learning.  To  speak  specifically, 
our  gardens  farther  east  have  been  watered 
by  such  men  as  Archibald  Alexander  Hodge, 
M'Gill,  Paxton,  Warfield,  Purves  and  Gregg, 
who  were  famous  here  before  we  took  them 
from  you. 

There  is,  however,  one  professor  whom  we 
have  never  been  able  to  lure  across  the  moun- 
tains. He  remains  here,  faithful  to  his  ances- 
tral soil,  and  loyal  to  the  old  blue  flag  of 
Alleghany.  I  refer  to  that  most  learned  and 
saintly  man,  Professor  Matthew  Brown  Riddle. 

It  is  not  for  a  layman  to  point  out  the 
things  that  have  made  this  Seminary  efficient. 
Yet  I  cannot  refrain  from  referring  to  some 
of  them. 

In  the  first  place,  this  school  has  always 
represented  a  very  definite  and  uncompromis- 
ing theology.     For  want  of  a  better  name, 

6 


I  shall  call  it  Calvinism.  Calvinism  has  had, 
and  still  has,  its  defenders  and  assailants. 
It  is  not  always  palatable.  Sometimes  it  is 
thought  to  be  medicinal.  It  has,  however, 
one  great  advantage.  It  is  true.  However 
it  may  be  regarded,  its  principles  are  the 
same,  yesterday,  to-day  and  forever.  The 
eternal  years  of  God  are  theirs. 

In  all  the  learned  professions,  particularly 
in  law  and  theology,  this  is  an  age  of  com- 
promise. The  period  of  great  advocates  is 
almost  past.  We  know  that  the  battles  in 
the  courts  are  no  longer  what  they  were.  It 
is  now  considered  better  to  have  disputes 
settled  out  of  court,  and  to  avoid  the  clamor 
and  shouting  of  the  forensic  arena.  In  theol- 
ogy, it  is  the  same.  Men  are  looking  always 
for  a  ground  on  which  they  can  meet,  and  are 
seeking  to  obliterate  so  far  as  possible  the 
old  dividing  walls  which  were  once  so  bravely 
defended. 

This  tendency  has  its  advantages.  It  les- 
sens friction,  and  makes  for  peace.  But  I 
sometimes  think  that,  with  this  habit  of  con- 
cessions and  compromise,  we  are  in  danger 
of  effacing  the  great  dividing  lines  between 
truth  and  error,  between  the  right  and  the 
wrong.     As  it  was  in  the  days  of  the  Early 

7 


Fathers,  so  it  was  in  the  day  of  the  Reformers, 
so  it  is  in  our  day.  Truth  is  not  discerned 
and  won  and  conserved  by  concession  and 
compromise.  It  is  the  spoils  of  war — a  war 
not  carnal,  but  intellectual  and  spiritual. 
This  Seminary  has  been  no  friend  of  com- 
promise. 

And  let  me  digress  here  and  now  to  say 
to  the  young  men  present,  from  the  point  of 
view  of  the  non-official  layman,  that  the  secret 
of  clerical  success  at  the  present  day  is  the 
uncompromising  preaching  of  the  fundamen- 
tal doctrines  of  Our  Holy  Faith. 

In  the  second  place,  it  seems  to  me  that 
you  have  here  taken  a  very  practical  view  of 
religious  teaching.  How  indeed  could  it  be 
otherwise?  You  could  not,  if  you  would, 
give  yourselves  over  to  mere-  speculative 
dogma  and  sterile  scholarship,  being  so  near 
as  you  are  to  the  great  industrial  capital  with 
the  flame  of  its  furnaces  before  your  eyes, 
and  the  sound  of  its  machinery  in  your  ears. 
The  real  world,  with  its  pathetic  hunger  and 
thirst  after  righteousness,  is  at  your  very 
doors;  and  a  man  who  can  study  here  with- 
out knowing  what  he  is  studying  for  must  be 
both  blind  and  deaf. 

And  thirdly,  I  think  that  this  school  of  the 

8 


prophets  has  been  great,  because  of  the  fire 
of  its  missionary  spirit.  More  than  one  of  its 
professors  have  come  from  the  foreign  field 
to  lead  students  to  see  farther  horizons  and 
more  glorious  visions.  We  recall  the  great 
Samuel  Henry  Kellogg,  the  translator  of  the 
Old  Testament  into  the  Hindi  language,  and 
Archibald  Alexander  Hodge.  Nor  must  we 
forget  that  a  missionary  home  has  given  us 
the  distinguished  President  of  this  institution. 

I  confess  that  I  should  like  to  read  the 
record  of  those  who  have  gone  from  here  to 
carry  light  and  life  into  the  African  jungle, 
and  into  the  formidable  regions  of  India  and 
China,  or  who  have  worn  out  their  lives  on 
an  apparently  hopeless  frontier  nearer  home. 
Our  hearts  burn  when  we  remember  J.  C. 
Lowrie  and  John  Newton  (fifty-seven  years  a 
missionary).  I  must  pause  to  tenderly  refer 
to  that  saint  and  martyr,  F.  E.  Simcox,  who 
with  his  lovely  wife  and  their  three  children 
was  brutally  murdered  in  China  in  the  year 
nineteen  hundred. 

The  Sun  (of  New  York)  on  Saturday  last 
stated  that  Mr.  Carnegie,  in  an  address  on  the 
twenty-eighth  of  April  in  this  city,  deplores  the 
expenditure  the  Churches  make  for  Foreign 
Missions.     I  applied  to  him  for  a  copy  of  his 

9 


address.  He  replied  that  he  had  no  notes  of 
his  address.  He  said:  "The  Sun  is  not  cor- 
rect. I  gave  no  figures.  I  think  it  is  the 
first  duty  of  millionaires  to  attend  to  the 
needs  of  their  neighbors.  I  count  Home 
Missions  first  in  importance." 

I  hope  Mr.  Carnegie,  although  he  has  not 
contradicted  the  paragraph,  did  not  say  what 
was  credited  to  him  by  the  Stm.  The 
protest  would  sound  strange  from  the  Donor 
of  the  Peace  Foundation,  which  is  in  itself  a 
missionary  work  among  foreign  nations,  the 
expenditures  of  which  will  not  be  confined  to 
territorial  limits.  The  Church  will,  we  hope, 
continue  to  send  abroad  the  Heralds  of  the 
Prince  of  Peace. 

I  hope  you  will  forgive  me  now,  if  I  refer 
to  something  more  personal  to  me  than  are 
these  general  thoughts.  I  never  come  into 
this  part  of  the  country  without  realizing  that 
it  is  a  place  made  dear  to  me  by  many  holy 
memories.  Not  far  away  was  born  one  to 
whom  I  owe  more  than  I  do  to  any  human 
being.  Her  father  made  Washington  and 
Jefferson  College  the  chief  interest  of  his 
life.  And  I  am  very  proud  to  wear  to-day 
the  gown  and  hood  of  doctor  of  laws  of  that 
College,  bestowed  on  me  at  its  Centennial. 

lO 


She  often  told  me  that  her  religious  char- 
acter was  formed,  at  her  mother's  side,  before 
she  was  ten  years  old,  in  the  old  President's 
Home  in  Canonsburg,  and  her  interest  in 
the  educational  work  of  this  region  was  keen 
until  her  life  closed  last  December.  My 
mother  was  deeply  gratified  when  ten  years 
ago  one  of  my  brothers  became  a  director 
of  this  institution. 

Moreover  the  building  which  we  begin  to- 
day replaces  one  which  was  built  by  one  of 
my  own  kindred,  whose  name  I  bear.  There 
are  probably  very  few  here  who  remember 
Dr.  Beatty,  and  the  singular  energy  and  per- 
tinacity with  which  he  gave  himself  to  the 
cause  of  religion  and  education — the  educa- 
tion of  ministers,  college  education,  the  educa- 
tion of  women.  Although  it  was  many  years 
ago,  I  remember  very  well  how  he  came  to 
New  York  and,  with  Dr.  William  Adams  of 
happy  memory,  worked  to  unite  the  divided 
branches  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  to  make 
it  once  more  a  mighty  fortress  against  igno- 
rance and  evil.  Dr.  Beatty  was  the  pioneer  of 
that  great  body  of  philanthropists  who  have 
made  Pittsburg  famous.  I  very  vividly  recall 
his  wife  Hetty,  called  by  hundreds  of  the 
women  of  this  region  "  Mother  Beatty,"  with 

II 


her  sweet  face  and  Early  Victorian  curls  on 
each  side  of  her  face.  She  was  a  woman 
well  worthy  of  her  distinguished  husband. 

In  closing,  we  wish  for  this  Seminary  a 
most  prosperous  career.  May  it  continue  to 
be  a  source  of  sound  learning  and  of  fervent 
piety,  so  long  as  time  shall  last. 

We  know  not  what  the  future  has  in  store 
for  Church  or  Country.  In  the  Desert  of  Sa- 
hara, last  winter,  I  was  told,  that  in  the  sand 
storm  in  the  darkest  night,  under  a  clouded 
sky,  every  true  Moslem  ever  intuitively  knows 
in  what  direction  lies  the  Sacred  City  of 
Mecca.  And  when  he  prays,  even  as  Daniel 
prayed,  his  "  windows  open  toward  Jerusa- 
lem," he  turns  toward  his  Holy  Places.  May 
it  not  be  that  in  the  days  of  darkness  which 
may  come  in  the  future.  Christians  may  turn 
in  like  manner  to  this  sacred  and  historic  hill, 
and  receive  as  they  pray  to  the  God  above, 
light  and  guidance  and  peace. 


'*iimii^il?MNiI!',??.'i?,T'^^'  Seminar  Libraries 


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#.'-  I* 


